No one should give you actual hate that you haven't read something. Teasing sure but not actual hate.

I didn't read the books till about the fifth movie was out? My uncle gave me the last book for my birthday so I got the others and read them. I like the movies, they aren't like a confort thing for me but I still like them and have all on DVD.

It honestly depends on how nit-picky you are on adaptions. If you focus on the tiniest thing it might change your opinion on them, then yeah I'd recommend not reading if you love the movies. But if you're more laid back and don't mind some deviations, some are pretty major, not enough to change the story but enough that it would have been cool if they could have kept.